Food & Fitness

A Celebration of National Pomegranate Month and POM Juice Giveaway

This is turning into Giveaway Wednesdays or something, but I’m sure no one’s really complaining… Besides, the father dear is arriving home today from his life in Cambodia for just two weeks (exciting!!!), so I feel the need to share the happiness by spreading the pomegranate-giveaway love!

POM Wonderful is celebrating National Pomegranate Month by offering to do a giveaway for three Living Healthy in the Real World readers. Pomegranates are little bundles of health and they’re so very pretty. POM Wonderful is hosting a recipe contest, and as I’m interested in experimenting with pomegranates in the kitchen, I thought I might have some fun with it. You all know how much I get a kick out of cooking/baking. These are two recipes that I have invented which I believe are gloriously tasty. Try them and tell me what you think!

Pomegranate Salad Dressing

Combine 1 peeled mandarin orange, 1 tbsp each cider vinegar and grape seed oil, 1/4 cup pomegranate arils, and a sprinkle each of salt and pepper in a blender. Blend and enjoy over salad! This is really yummy and has a strong vinegar flavour which I quite enjoy- it would be perfect for a summery salad. It’s also a beautiful pink colour. Feel free to add more pomegranate arils for enhanced fruitiness. I’ve also had the suggestion to add some mustard into the mix, which I think would be delicious, so next time I will certainly be trying that out. My roommate raved about this dressing, so that’s always a good sign.

Peanut Butter Pomegranate Brownies

Sound a little odd? Why yes, yes it is! But it’s also delicious. This is something I used to make a couple years ago, but without the pomegranate arils. When I tasted the POMx bars in California, I remembered these brownies and decided to try adding the arils- the bars and this homemade brownie are remarkably similar in taste and texture!

There are a couple variations on this recipe that I’ve made, mostly because PB2 and chocolate protein powder are things that I don’t include in recipes when other people are going to be eating the food. I’ll give you my favourite healthified version first, and the adapted (and easier) version second:

Soak 1/2 cup dates (roughly 12) in water for about an hour. Throw them in a food processor (without the water) and add 1/8 cup pomegranate arils. Pulse the dates/pomegranate arils until they’re in little chunky pieces. Mix up 1/2 cup PB2 with 1/4 cup water and add the PB2 mixture to the dates. Then add 1/8 cup NutriBiotic Vegan Chocolate Rice Protein Powder to the mixture as well. Pulse it all in the food processor until it is mixed up and clumped together. Spoon into a small dish and press down. Refrigerate or freeze and enjoy!

Easier version: Put 1/2 cup soaked dates in a food processor along with 1/8 cup pomegranate arils and pulse until they’re in small pieces. Add 1/2 cup all-natural peanut butter and 1/8 cup cocoa powder to the mixture and pulse until it’s all mixed together well; refrigerate/freeze.

I’m not going to lie, the first version is much tastier. And it’s got added protein and healthy goodness! However, both PB2 and this chocolate rice protein powder are quite expensive, and they’re also very difficult to find. The second version is still worth it, trust me. Unless you accidentally put twice as much cocoa powder into the mixture as the recipe calls for. I advise against that. Especially if you’re making the brownie for someone else (whoops, my bad). If that happens, you can frost this brownie with Better ‘n Peanut Butter and do a poor decorating job with a few pomegranate arils. Not that I would have done that, of course (damn, my secret is out).

My third favourite “recipe” for using pomegranate arils is to put some in the bottom of a champagne flute, add good quality champagne, and drink. Tastiness in a glass.

To enter to win a case of POM juice, I want to hear your favourite ways to use pomegranate arils/juice. Do you have any special ways that you use them? Do you have any suggestions for how my recipes mentioned here can be improved? If you have a really awesomely innovative/creative/delicious/healthy idea, your chances of being picked as winner might just increase a wee bit. There’s your motivation! Giveaway is for Canada/USA; winner announced one week from today (Wednesday, November 25).

I had a glorious appetizer at foodbuzz with arils – a small tart crust filled with butternut squash wild rice, topped with creamy blue cheese Dijon mustard and POM arils. It was my favorite dish of the whole day and the POM arils were the stars.

Nothing special but I added POM Juice to 7 Up Pomegranate last week. The soft drink is somewhat healthy, with 10% of your daily Vitamin E, and tastes fine but the blast of POM Juice makes it really good.

That would be the above mentioned brownie which I messed up when I made it for him. Tehe. Umm yeah I’ll make another one soon for you and you can taste it too. I’ll try not to mess up the ratios this time.

I haven’t received my POM goodies yet but I have been WAITING for those POMx bars. So tasty delicious. My roommate is crazy over them. Haven’t seen them in stores yet though- I wonder if they’re on the market yet? I think you’d really enjoy this brownie!